Saturday, May 28, 2011

I'm pretty excited about this. I have never ran(to my knowledge) a 10K under 1 hour. I just never put forth the effort to keep up a decent pace.

Wednesday I did a 10K. It was unintentional and I just kept saying, "Well why not do another mile?" When I hit the 5.3 mile mark I realized that I could possibly get it under a one hour mark. I ran hard, but didn't make it.

So Friday I set out to do it. Here's the RunKeeper. I basically ran it at a pace that I could still sprint out of but I definitely wasn't running slow(to me at least :P). By the fifth mile I knew I had it because I was only at ~45 minutes. Regardless, I tried to pick up the pace on the last mile: 1) to ensure I would make it and 2) because I enjoy it.

So that's it. I feel good and know I am ready for the Peachtree Road Race. I just have to maintain now and maybe get more used to the distance.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Originally my girlfriend made an appointment for crossfit, but she couldn't make it and told me to check it out.

I got there and was greeted by a member. He was cool and shook my hand. He led me to the instructor, who seemed like a really laid-back and educated guy.

I introducted myself, discussed my goals, etc. I also asked him if he minded if I went barefoot. He was a little worried I would have problems on the asphalt. I informed him I ran many miles on the asphalt and am fine with it. He couldn't find a reason why not and said sure(huge plus for me!)

I started out with a 400 m jog to loosen up. Then I did 20 situps on a pad(ab something?) with my legs in a butterfly position. He taught me how to do dips and showed me how to do kipping pullups. I need to work on these!

Next we did squats, then the workout of the day. This took a little over an hour and I feel great.

I didn't lift much weight since I am new, but I feel like I can lift more next time.
Well, I just want to conclude that I think I am an addict now. I like the exercises they made me do. I kind of wish they were more functional, but maybe I just came on an odd day. I can't wait for my next session!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

So I got pretty far in the 100 Push-up Challenge(along with squats and situps), almost to around week 5. Why did I stop? Because I could run. See, I had problems with my knee and worked other parts of my body to heal. Once I was able to run I was too lazy to include other exercises in my routine(this is bad). Luckily, I heard a nice little trick to include these in your day, especially easy if you work from home.

At the softball game yesterday some girls were talking behind me about one of their friends. Apparently the girl does 10 pushups and 10 situps every time she goes to the bathroom.

Genius! Sure, it doesn't seem like a lot each time, but by the end of a nicely hydrated day, or a fun night, you can possibly do more than 100 push-ups and sit-ups. I am starting out focusing on push-ups and may add sit-ups in later.

Friday, May 20, 2011

A majority of my run today was hilly. I have been focusing on getting myself comfortable with the 10K distance. For this reason I have avoided hills.

I started at the North Georgia baseball fields, ran 2 miles, had to poo, came home, and went running again. The second route I took was a derivative of an old one I used to do. I had to extend it and double back. This added a huge hill. I feel great now and should probably do that more often.

The pads of my feet are a little raw. I haven't been running as much since summer started(heat + the impossibility of waking up early) and my job(not really a valid excuse). Luckily, the pads of the feet develop rather quickly.

Most of my runs until the Peachtree Road Race will be maintenance runs. I may make the 6 mile distance a little more complicated(add speed, more hills, etc).

Monday, May 2, 2011

To cover the past few weeks... I have increased my mileage steadily doing 3 miles every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and doing 6 miles on Saturday/Sunday.

I also ran a 5K. I wasn't shooting for a fast time, but about 1 mile in I decided to step it up. I finished it in 22:01(first in my age group, 6th overall), which wasn't bad considering my previous time at 20:54 with a lot more training.

I was flirting with the idea of running 5 miles every day in May(5th month) for a total of 155 miles. A few days ago I did two 4 milers back to back and my knee is bugging me again. I better stay away from that plan. It's not worth the chance of injury.

Oh and did I mention... I'm running the Peachtree Road Race(10K). It will be my first non-5K race. I doubt I will have a great time since the crowd looks like this:

So yup. That's where I currently am in my running career. More updates soon.